Posted by Rod Weatherbie in bakeries, bread, shops on April 11, 2008 at 4:44 pm

Arriving at Toronto’s first Le Pain Quotidien (508 Eglinton Avenue West) location late last month to meet the company’s chief creative officer, I had to wait outside as a contractor applied a restaurant logo decal to the front door. Dressed funny for a contractor, suit coat, Italian leather shoes.Turns out Le Pain Quotidien founder and chief bread maker Alain Coumont is a hands on kind of guy. He was in Toronto to help launch the latest addition to the bakery-café chain and its first location in Canada.

His empire began in Belgium 18 years ago and now has locations in New York, Dubai, London and Paris. The Canadian spot opens to the general public on April 9th. This is his third visit to Canada in anticipation of the launch. “I came here before to source the organic flour we use in the bread,” he said.

Local organic is important to him; this goes back to the bakery-café’s founding. Le Pain Quotidien first opened its door in downtown Brussels. Coumont decided he had to bake his own bread because he was having trouble importing Poilâne bread from Paris to serve in his restaurant and local bakeries were unable to produce a loaf as good. "I kept it simple. Water, flour, salt and natural yeast or a good sour dough starter.”

Poilâne is named after French boulanger Lionel Poilâne. He is most well-known for a round, two-kilogram sourdough country bread called pain Poilâne. Le Pain Quotidien’s loafs are definitely contenders. Big, chewy crusts, heavy rich centre, they’re like edible curling stones.

Coumont said that the milling of the flour is the most important part of the process. The restaurant is using organic flour from Grain Process Enterprises in Scarborough. The flour is being specially stone ground and due to the uneven nature of organic flour if it’s a little “flat” one day and not the other, no matter, “each loaf is individual.”

While the basic ingredients may be local, the menu at Le Pain Quotidien is the same whether in Qatar or LA. Although, Coumont said some exceptions can be made. “In Manhattan they are mad for their bagels in the morning.” But he holds no quarter with the American love affair with white bread. “We just don’t make a white bread. A baguette maybe, but not a big loaf.”

The main attraction - besides the bread, patisseries, sandwiches, salads and soups - is the design of the restaurant which varies very little from location to location. A modest room with seating for 40 to 60 with almost 30 of those seats placed around a simply huge table, almost four-meters long. For his first bakery in Belgium he found the original table cheap at a warehouse. He insists that this be the focal point. It forces people to sit together and to share, even if it’s something as simple as passing butter down the line. “This is very popular at every location. Most diners, although not used to the idea, quickly learn to enjoy the communal table.”

The company plans to open to open three additional locations in the city this year: one at 18 Yorkville, another at 200 Bay Street in the Royal Bank Plaza (in the PATH) and one at 30 Desera Drive in Thornhill. This is in addition to the almost 90 locations around the world.

Between globe trotting and applying decals, does he miss the kitchen? “I still get in. We have to train people so I do my part there.”

But he doesn’t seem to miss the high end pressure of the kitchen. Coumont said he trained at French culinary schools and worked for a long time is what he described very “chi chi” restaurants. “The bakery and this bread was my escape from truffles and caviar.”